Socket wrench having magnetic nut-holding means



Aug. 25, 1964 R. J. MAUCK 3,145,595

SOCKET WRENCH HAVING MAGNETIC NUT-HOLDING MEANS Filed Aug. 15, 1963 I0 5I I9 II J 20- FIG.!

F I G. 4 I9 27 INVENTOR.

n i 26 ROBERT MAUCK 26a.

F I G. 5

' ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,145,595 SOCKET WRENCH HAVING MAGNETICNUT-HOLDING MEANS Robert J. Mauck, 36 N. Union Ave, Alliance, Ohio,assignor of one-half to Dr. Robert V. Fisher, Carrollton,

Ohio

Filed Aug. 15, 1963, Ser. No. 302,303 Claims. (Cl. 81-125) The presentinvention relates generally to magnetic tools. More particularly thepresent invention relates to a magnetic device for holding fastenersoperatively positionable by a socket or chuck. Specifically, the presentinvention relates to a socket driver having a magnetic mechanism inconjunction with the driving connection between the driver and socket tohold a fastener within the socket.

The use of magnetic means to hold a fastener in driving contact with atool by which it is operatively positioned has found widespreadacceptance. Such a device is especially desirable when the fastener mustbe secured in a location where there is very little clearance and notample room for the workman to hold the fastener with his fingers whileinitially engaging it with its mating device.

Magnetic holders have found further acceptance because they facilitaterapid assembly of parts in todays mass production assembly lines.

Nuts, bolts, polygonally headed screws and the like are especiallyadapted to be held in a socket or chuck. Such fasteners may be mostreadily applied if they can be inserted in the socket or chuck and beretained therein until the fastener is applied and tightened inposition.

Heretofore, there have been three unique approaches in applying amagnetic means for holding such fasteners in the socket. One approachhas been to supply each socket with an individually fitted magnet. Insome cases these magnets have been fixedly positioned within the socketand in other cases they have been mounted within the socket to slideaxially therein in order to accommodate the extension of the part towhich the fastener is secured, as for example, the extension of the boltpast the nut as the latter is tightened into operative position. Thisapproach, while satisfactory for performing the required function,requires a separate magnet for each socket.

A second approach has been to rnagnetize the entire socket itself. Hereagain each socket must be individually prepared. Aside from the costfactor of initially magnetizing the socket, the material from which mostsockets are made only has a moderate magnetic retentivity so that theirmagnetic strength is readily diminished if they are dropped or otherwisesubjected to shock or heat.

The third approach has been to provide a magnet in the end of the driverwith which the socket is operated. This approach works quitesatisfactorily with most bolts or screws with polygonally shaped heads,as they provide a full head surface for contact with the end of thedriver. However, when one attempts to hold a nut with such anarrangement, it will work satisfactorily only if the diameter of themagnetized portion or" the driver is greater than the inner diameter ofthe nut. Accordingly, in a standard socket set the magnetized driverwould be able to engage nuts fitting in only about one-half of thesockets.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a meansfor magnetically retaining fasteners within any of a plurality ofsockets without magnetizing the socket and without supplying anindividual magnet for each socket.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a socket driverhaving a magnetic means capable of re- Patented Aug. 25, 1964 taining afastener in any socket adapted to be driven by the driver.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a socketdriver having a magnetic device capable of retaining a nut in a socketirrespective of the relative inner diameter of the nut with respect tothe dimension of the driving connection between the socket and itsdriver.

It is a still further object of the present invention to provide amagnetic socket driver, as above, which is highly durable and yeteconomical to produce.

These and other objects which will become apparent ice 7 from thefollowing specification are accomplished by means hereinafter describedand claimed.

One preferred embodiment is shown by way of example in the accompanyingdrawings and hereinafter described in detail without attempting to showall of the various forms and modifications in which the invention mightbe embodied; the invention being measured by the appended claims and notby the details of the specification.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a socket driver embodying the concept ofthe present invention;

FIG. 2 is a view similar to FIG. 1 depicting, in phantom, the operatorshand initially inserting the driver into a socket;

FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 2 showing a successive stage ofinsertion of the driver into the socket;

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 3 showing the driver fully insertedinto the socket; and FIG. 5 is a partial side elevation takensubstantially on line 55 of FIG. 1.

In general, a socket driver according to the present invention has ashank portion terminating in a driving connector insertable within themating portion of the socket to be driven thereby. Extending axiallyforwardly from the connector portion of the socket driver, are at leastone pair of adjacent, pivotally mounted magnets with parallel polarityin order that the outward ends of the magnets will be biased away fromeach other about their pivotal mounting.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, an im proved socket driverembodying the concept of the present invention is indicated generally bythe numeral 10. The driver 10 has a shank portion 11 which connects thedrive portion 12 to the standard socketed coupler portion 13 whereby thedriver 10 is connected to the ratchet, brace, power tool or other primemover.

The drive portion 12 includes the standard polygonal in cross section,preferably square, drive connector 14 and seating shoulder 15. One sideof the drive connector 14 is provided with a detent means 16 to maintainthe driver in the socket. The detent 16 comprises a ball 18 biasedoutwardly against a retaining ring 19 by a com pression spring 20, allhoused within a bore 21 in the driver 14. a

As shown in FIG. 4, when the driver 10 is connected to the socket 22,the connector 14 matingly engages a drive connector recess 23 in one endof the socket 22, with the seating shoulder 15 engaging the face 24 ofthat end. In this position the detent ball 18 is received in a groove 25propitiously placed in connector recess 23.

The structure heretofore described is well known to the prior art. a

The magnetic means associated with the driver It) comprises, preferably,two bar magnets 26 and 27. One end of each magnet is received in a notch28 in the end of the connector 14. Each magnet 26 and 27 is pivotallymounted in notch 28, as by pins 29 and 36, respectively. The magnets 26and 27 are contiguously mounted in adjacent relationship with theirpolarity best described as being parallel. That is, the north and southpoles of each magnet are adjacent the corresponding north and southpoles of the other magnet. For example, in the embodiment shown theouter ends 26a and 27a of the magnets may be the north pole thereof, asindicated by the letter fN. Thus with like poles in proximity they tendto repel each other and the magnets 26 and 27 will be self biasing topivot about pins 29 and 30 such that the outer ends 26a and 2711 willautomatically seek to space themselves apart, as shown in FIG. 1.

To facilitate this pivotal swinging of the magnets, the rear, opposedfacing portions of the magnets 26 and 27 are convexly curved as at 31and 32, respectively.

The socket 22, in addition to the connector recess 23, also has afastener receiving recess 33 communicating with the connector recess 23.The recess 33 is of noncircular form, preferably hexagonal or octagonal,as is the preferred form, so as to engagingly receive polygonally sidedfasteners such as the nut 34 shown.

To attach the socket 22 to the driver It the operator applies fingerpressure to the two magnets 26 and 27 to swing them into contiguousrelation. The outer ends 26:: and 27a of the magnet may then be insertedinto the connector recess 23, as shown in FIG. 2. Thereafter the driveris further inserted until the connector fully seats in the connectorrecess with the shoulder 15 engaging the end 24 of'the socket 22 and thedetent ball 18 received in groove 25.

As is shown in the progressive views of FIGS. 3 and 4, the parallel likepoles repel each other to swing the magnetic means apart. Because ofthis, when the driver is fully inserted, the outer ends 26a and 27a ofthe magnets 26 and 27 will have moved radially outwardly of said driveconnector 14 to contact the sides of the fastener receiving recess 33.Thus, the magnetic means will engage and hold any fastener inserted inthe fastener receiving recess 33-even a nut, as 34, having an innerdiameter greater than the outermost dimension of the connector 14.

Of course, to operate satisfactorily the dimension between the shoulder15 and the pivot points, or pins 29 and 30, of the magnets, should besubstantially equal to the dimension of that portion of the socket 22between the one end 24 and the base 35 of the fastener receiving recess33. This permits the magnets to swing freely into the fastener receivingportion of even the largest of the standard sized sockets.

It should be readily apparent from the foregoing description that adriver constructed according to the concept of the present inventionaccomplishes the objects of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. A driver for a socket or the like having a fastener receiving recessin one end thereof communicating with a drive connector recess on theother end thereof, said driver having a drive connector for operativeinsertion within said drive connector recess, at least one pair ofmagnets, pivotal means for securing the magnet to said drive connectorin adjacent relation with each other and extending forwardly of saiddrive connector, the polarity of said magnets being parallel.

2. A driver for a socket or the like having a fastener receiving recessin one end thereof communicating with a drive connector recess on theother end thereof, said driver having a drive connector for operativeinsertion within said drive connector recess, a pair of magnets, pivotalmeans for securing the magnet to said drive connector in adjacentrelation with each other and extending forwardly of said drive connectorto extend into the fastener receiving recess when said drive connectoris operatively received in said drive connector recess, at least one ofthe poles of one said magnet being positioned in adjacent relation withthe corresponding pole of the other of said pair of magnets forwardlyand outwardly of the pivotal means.

3. A driver for a socket or the like having a fastener receiving recessin one end thereof communicating with a drive connector recess on theother end thereof, said driver having a drive connector for operativeinsertion within said drive connector recess, at least one pair ofmagnets, said magnets mounted on the forward end of said drive connectorand movable radially of said drive connector Within said fastenerreceiving recess, the corresponding poles of said magnets located inadjacent relation in order that the repelling force of like poles willmove said magnets away from each other.

4. A driver for a socket or the like having a fastener receiving recessin one-end thereof communicating with a drive connector recess on theother end thereof, said driver having a drive connector for operativeinsertion Within said drive connector recess, a slot in the outer end ofsaid drive connector, a pair of bar magnets, one end of each said magnetreceived within said slot, hinge means for pivotally mounting saidmagnets within said slot, at least one pole of one said magnet beingpositioned in adjacent relationship with the corresponding pole of theother of said pair of magnets forwardly and outwardly of the pivotalmeans.

5. A driver for a socket or the like having a fastener receiving recessin one end thereof communicating with a drive connector recess on theother end thereof, said driver having a drive connector for operativeinsertion within said drive connector recess, a slot in the outer end ofsaid drive connector, :1 pair of bar magnets, one end of each saidmagnet received within said slot, a pin pivotally mounting each magnetin said slot, said magnets j being mounted in generally parallelorientation so thatthe adjacent outermost ends of each magnet constitutepoles of like polarity to cause the outermost ends of said magnets totend to swing away from each other.

References Cited in the file of this patent V UNITED STATES PATENTS2,300,308

1. A DRIVER FOR A SOCKET OR THE LIKE HAVING A FASTENER RECEIVING RECESSIN ONE END THEREOF COMMUNICATING WITH A DRIVE CONNECTOR RECESS ON THEOTHER END THEREOF, SAID DRIVER HAVING A DRIVE CONNECTOR FOR OPERATIVEINSERTION WITHIN SAID DRIVE CONNECTOR RECESS, AT LEAST ONE PAIR OFMAGNETS, PIVOTAL MEANS FOR SECURING THE MAGNET TO SAID DRIVE CONNECTORIN ADJACENT RELATION WITH EACH OTHER AND